The present invention relates to a golf club and more particularly to the handle or grip thereof, the invention dealing with the design of an easily exchangeable grip on such clubs. The most common is that the handle portion is provided by mounting of a special handle element, the so-called grip, on the upper end of the club tube or rod by a rather complicated technique, and it is not possible to carry out any easy or quick exchange of such a grip. It is well known, therefore, that the grip is exchanged only when it is worn down to such an extent that it will no longer provide for a safe hold of the club, this amounting to a real repair rather than just a change of a club part. This repair is both expensive and time consuming, and it can be made by the golfer himself only in exceptional cases.
It would be desirable that the golfers themselves could carry out not only such a repair, but also an easy and rapid change of a prefabricated handle element, whereby it would be possible for the golfer even during the game to change between different grip elements adapted for different situations of use.
The idea of such a design it not new, and several proposals for such changeable grips have been given. In practice, however, the proposals so far have been turned down by the international golf organisations, not because of non-attainment of the desired advantages, but because there are associated and apparently non-acceptable drawbacks, which should not be further specified here. It is to be emphasized, however, that the present invention provides for an exchange system which, almost sensationally, has been found acceptable by the said organisations, such that the system can be used in practice in international competition golf.
One of the said known proposals is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,939, according to which the handle end of the club rod is rigidly provided with a downwardly converging carrier bushing for a correspondingly shaped, resilient outer tube, which can be mounted on the bushing in being introduced over the upper, broader end thereof. This introduction will be rather difficult, as the outer `grip tube` shall be expanded for passing over the said broader end, and it is a serious drawback that there is no effective prevention against a mutual rotation between the carrier bushing and the outer tube; moreover it is considered unlucky that the outer pipe at any place of it can be drawn radially outwardly from the carrier bushing. Also, after all, a changing of the grip tube will still be a difficult operation, which may well be done for renewal or repair, but not for an operational rapid replacement with another type or dimension of the outer pipe.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 3,524,646 it has also been proposed that the entire handle portion of the club may be detachably secured to the club rod as a separate unit, which will then, of course, be changeable with another, corresponding unit of some other shape or character, but also this solution has been professionally rejeted. It is conditioned by special and therewith heavy coupling means for joining the upper end of the club rod with the upper extension constituted by the entire handle part, and the latter part itself should have to be made as a stiff and relatively expensive element.
Still a further proposal for exchangeable grips is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,168, where a cylindrical grip element can be inserted over the upper end of the club rod and be secured thereto by means of a particular end fixture, which, however, requires a special design of the upper end of the club rod. Neither in this case there will be any safety against mutual rotation of the club rod and the surrounding grip part, and not either against radial retraction of the outer grip part from the outside of the club rod or pipe.